MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti sports commentator Mikhail Smirnov.) There are only seven rounds to go in the Russian football championship, but it remains to be seen who will win medals and who will have to leave the Premier League.
Obviously, struggle will be tough, but tensions around the tournament are already escalating, sometimes getting beyond purely football issues. Increasingly often, referees star on stadiums instead of players. And, as is often the case with such a mess of functions, it is the game and its loyal fans that suffer most.
Let us make it clear. That football referees are far from impeccable has never been much of a secret for anyone. Yet never before have Russian referees been so meticulously, almost microscopically scrutinized by the public. Unprecedented things have happened: At first, the Referee Board of the Russian Football Union, encouraged by an influential sports publication, disqualified Portuguese midfielder Costinha of Dinamo Moscow for foul play, overlooked or not duly punished by the referee, almost two weeks after the match.
Then the Chechen club Terek addressed directly the Russian President asking him to do something about biased refereeing of its matches. Copies of the address were sent to the Union and the Board. Other clubs, i.e. Spartak Moscow, asked the Union to appoint foreign referees to crucial games, such as its forthcoming match against CSKA. They say they do not doubt the professionalism or impartiality of Russian referees, but "sometimes they cannot stand the pressure of such matches and make serious mistakes." "Our referees are in no way inferior to foreigners, but such a derby requires extreme self-possession from the referee," wrote Spartak's leaders and recalled that refereeing of German Florian Meyer of the same teams' match in the first leg had satisfied both teams.
The football authorities reacted immediately. The Union's president Vitaly Mutko held an extraordinary meeting with representatives of clubs and referees. They unanimously endorsed a new list of game commissioners, reduced to 18 people, and a list of game inspectors. They also allowed appointing the best referees to successive matches of one team. The number of foreign referees that could be appointed to matches of the Russian championship were limited to 39 names from the UEFA top list.
In response to Costinha's disqualification, the meeting's participants decided to quickly develop a mechanism to hear complaints about referees made in mass media or elsewhere after the match in order to give all teams equal opportunities.
"Most importantly, we should gain confidence in each other," Mr. Mutko addressed the audience. "Otherwise the final rounds of the championship will turn into a string of scandals and squabbles. It would be wrong to watch football only through the prism of referees' mistakes." He does not believe that the problem can be solved by inviting foreign referees. "It will be much more useful to ensure that corporate ethics is complied with. And under no circumstances can refereeing mistakes be accompanied by political rhetoric," he emphasized.
Russian referees indicated that they intended to react urgently to the accusations brought against them. They said that Terek's statement went beyond the existing football laws and could kindle passions on the football field and beyond it. They asked the Union to consider sending an address to Terek and, if no public answer is given, to appoint foreign referees instead of the Board's members to the remaining matches of the club. If the trend sustains, very soon we may be witnessing total disappearance of Russian referees from the national championship. Then they will have a chance to find a job abroad, replacing those who will come to referee in Russia.
